Thursday March 10, 2005 7:59 am

Supercomputer Behind Film Special Effects: Now For Hire

The network of computers used to generate the special effects wizardry behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy is still being used today, on a work-for-hire basis, for a variety of purposes. One project is the design of a super yacht, while another is around the testing of gene sequencing algorithms. Doesn’t get much more varied than that. Not to fear though, as film companies are still using the supercomputer for their effects, including Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake. Able to crunch more than 2.8 trillion calculations per second, it is now 104th most powerful supercomputer on the planet.